


Re:Zero - Grief IF

by swan997



Category: Re:ゼロから始める異世界生活 | Re:Zero Starting Life in Another World (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Possible Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:42:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28864233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swan997/pseuds/swan997
Summary: Upon waking up from Satella's simulation broken by Volcanica, Natsuki Subaru begins from the start with the knowledge through the trials of the Watchtower. (Arc 6 Spoilers)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 36





	1. Arc 1 - The Capital City's First Day

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to extend my gratitude to all the beta readers, including Nyarlathotep0307 and Anomynion! :)

_The last thing he saw was the roaring figure of Volcanica before he felt himself falling into a void..._

[omitted]

" _You know what it is now… I'll see you eventually..." murmured Satella, and the boy felt a jarring jolt._

Waking up from what was a very long and eventful dream, Natsuki Subaru sat up slowly from the supine position he was in on the side of the street, receiving strange looks from the confused passerby who nevertheless continued with their lives.

_I guess I'm homeless once again… and broke, too…hah..._

Standing up, stretching, and yawning loudly, Subaru looked at the sky and noticed the same glaring sunlight as the moment he first was summoned to Lugunica, and purposefully began to stroll the nostalgic streets back to the familiar alleyway he had found himself in many times, taking a moment to catch the eye of a certain appa salesman who looked at his clothing with interest.

He began to consider the new situation carefully as he walked in the general direction of the alleyway. _Maybe I won't smell of miasma anymore, since I can't die… but I can't die anymore either, can I? Hah, that's funny. I'd better account for Rem anyway, she might still think that I'm a spy. I'd better make a plan soon for the Sanctuary, as well… The most important thing, for now, would be to secure Reinhard for the loot house._ As he moved through the crowd, nearing the location of the hooligans, he pondered what he would say to Reinhard upon seeing him again. And then a thought hit him like a brick. _Rem. She'll have her memories back… and won't know me. This world truly hates me, doesn't it?_ He forced himself to stop thinking about those thoughts and focus on the issues at hand, moving faster with a burst of motivation from his anger at his situation.

Upon his arrival at the narrow backstreet, he found three leering gazes on him.

"As expected… " Subaru sighed.

"If you don't wanna get hurt, cough up whatever you've got!" yelled one of the thieves.

"You know… I heard the Sword Saint was patrolling this area today. Are you guys sure you wanna mug me right now?" Subaru slowly smirked while asking.

"What the hell are you rambling about?"

"That's crazy. He's bluffing - get him quick!"

Smiling, Subaru began to scream in a high-pitched voice before any of the nervous thieves could move closer. "Swooooord Saint! Please come save meeeeeeeee!"

The thugs blanched, looked at each other, then pulled out their blades, but before any of them took more than 3 steps forward, a tall, young knight with a head of red hair popped out from behind the corridor. At this unfortunate turn of events, the thieves exchanged astonished glances and promptly turned tail to run, losing out on a potential business prospect in a matter of seconds.

"Good thing you came to save me, Reinhard. Thank you for your help." Subaru grinned at the surprised knight.

"I'm glad we're safe … are you hurt anywhere? Also… I must ask, you seem like a foreigner. Am I that well known in … are you from Gusteko?" Reinhard spoke for the first time to this stranger, appraising the boy's relatively odd appearance. "And how did you know I was here? I'm not even on patrol… if you were relying on my being here, that could have ended badly." He looked at the teenager with a reproachful but worried, and mildly suspicious, look.

"Heh, no need to worry about that. You were free today, right?" Subaru confirmed, to which Reinhard responded affirmatively with an uneasy nod. "Well, it's good that I met you, as I've got important information that the Sage Council needs to hear- I'll need your help with an errand beforehand to get the message there, though," he added carefully.

Reinhard's eyes widened for a moment but quickly settled into an inquisitive gaze. "It seems you know a lot about our country, …" he paused. "Forgive me. It appears I haven't heard your name yet, although you know mine."

The boy held the silence for just a bit too long not to draw any suspicion, averting his eyes, but nevertheless promptly responded, "I'm Subaru. Natsuki Subaru. I, uh… It's nice to meet you." He cleared his throat and raised his face. "Anyways, we should hurry. I'll tell you the details as we go. There are some people in danger as we speak right now."

The knight sucked in a breath and replied, "Lead the way… Natsuki." _Eh, it's my day off anyway. What could go wrong?_ He thought to himself.

The teenager gave him a glance filled with an indescribable emotion at the sound of his name and took off at a fairly fast jog, and Reinhard followed.

"I have a few things to say, so let me finish before you ask any clarifying questions, alright?" Subaru said. "Anyways, first off… I'm going to bring you to the Fifth Royal Candidate." Reinhard almost tripped and fell at this kind of ridiculous sentence he had least expected to hear from a random civilian, but Subaru continued without breaking pace. "Also, she is a thief living in the slums, so that's where we're heading right now. She stole something from another royal candidate, and they're being targeted by an assassin. That's the short version, anyway." Subaru thought about this for a moment. "Hm, that's an interesting coincidence, for a candidate to be robbing another one."

"Well, I obviously have some questions… but I'll put my trust in you for now," Reinhard responded, attempting to conceal his pure shock at the information dumped rather inconsiderately upon him by the (Gustekan? He still wasn't sure) man before him.

After running in silence for quite some time, Subaru spoke up again. "Ah, a few more important details are that the victim of the robbery hasn't made it to where the assassinations will occur. And that the assassin will target the royal candidates in the future, so you will have to kill her, as she is an active threat part of a larger group that will cause problems if not taken care of now."

Reinhard sighed. "Unfortunate, but I'll assume that you're correct for now," focusing on running and processing the detailed information being given to him in such a high concentration, only to be distracted by Subaru breathing a bit heavier than normal as he tried to keep up with the Sword Saint. They had been running for a significant amount of time by this point, and despite the fit body the young man seemed to maintain, it didn't seem to Reinhard like he was significantly physically strong, also, he had the hands of one who was rich enough to not work as a child to support their family. At the same time, he carried himself with quite a good form that didn't really match the trouble he was having keeping up. _Interesting combination of traits,_ he noted to himself.

"Sorry, I can keep up… I'm a bit not used to this body, is all…" Subaru realized what he had just said. "Uh, don't worry about that."

Reinhard chose not to question that statement, which was even stranger than anything the stranger had said so far. However, he began to realize the gravity of the words Natsuki had spoken prior and questioned him, "Can we stop for a moment?"

Subaru gave him a slightly annoyed look. "I'm perfectly capable of… keeping up… " he huffed, clearly barely able to keep up, "Ah, do you have questions? Ask away! I'll answer while we travel, we don't have time to lose."

"The level of knowledge about this you have doesn't seem to make sense," Reinhard observed, "Do you have some kind of odd blessing?" _Or are you a member of the assassination group?_ He posed the question as they continued on their way to the slums, beginning to move out of the clusters of buildings in the actual capital by this point and nearing the slum area.

Subaru carefully thought about the question before answering. "It's more like a curse… I don't know if you would believe this… but I've seen a bit of the near future. I don't think giving the details is a good idea at this time because you would need to have this information verified for it to matter anyway."

Reinhard raised his eyebrows. "Well, that is indeed difficult to believe… but if you do successfully find us the last royal candidate, that would probably be solid evidence. Theoretically, we could check with one of the candidates, Miss Karsten… hmm, who is the other candidate involved in this? And do you know the appearances of the new candidate and assassin?"

"Yep, it's the gorgeous candidate Emilia being the other involved party, and the new candidate looks a young blonde 14-year-old, named Felt. The assassin is Elsa… I'm sure you've heard of her." Reinhard stiffened for a moment in shock at the mention of the infamous Bowel Hunter. "There should be another person there too, an older man named Rom who is well-acquainted with Felt. Since Emilia is likely heading there right now as well, we might want to consider finding her because the assassin will prioritize her, but I'll follow your decision for this since you have the training for these kinds of situations."

"Yes, that would be a good idea- " Reinhard responded, only to be cut off.

"Ah, there she is!" Subaru seemed to forget his fatigue from running for a moment, running over to the seemingly frantic half-elf who had also reached the area where the capital began to merge with the slum sector. Strangely, she didn't seem to be heading to the slums - the opposite, in fact, Reinhard noted. "Hi, uh, Emilia," Subaru greeted the girl.

"Do you know me?" Emilia asked.

"Of course," responded Subaru cheerfully. "You're a royal candidate, of course, I know you. But that's not important right now. Are you missing your insignia?" Reinhard stepped up beside Subaru and greeted Emilia as well, and tried to conceal his surprise that her stolen object was her insignia.

"Oh! Reinhard-san, I didn't expect to see you here... " Emilia greeted him back, then turned to Natsuki Subaru to answer him with a puzzled expression. "Why would I be missing my insignia?"

"What are you talking about? It should have been stolen from you by a girl about … this high," Subaru gestured at about the height of his shoulders.

Even more confused, Emilia furrowed her brow and responded, "No, what are you talking about? I'm the one missing from Ram, not the other way around… " She sighed in exasperation. "I don't even know how I ended up here."

"I can help you get to your maid, if need be," Reinhard mentioned.

"We need to find Felt first, remember?" Subaru thought furiously, trying to puzzle out the implications of Emilia not having lost her insignia. The sky was painted with streaks of red and orange by now- _There was no way that Felt shouldn't have been able to snatch the badge_ , he thought frantically. _Is it Roswaal doing something?_ "And we'll need you, as well, Emilia, since it's your… ah, I have to explain this all again. Anyways, we need your help with something. We'll help you find Ram afterward. Reinhard, care to explain it to her?"

Emilia hesitantly agreed and Reinhard caught her up to speed with the updated information about the fifth candidate possibly being targeted by an assassin, reacting with shock as expected as they moved deeper into the slum sector.

"The fifth candidate was found? That's flabbergasting! How?" Emilia asked.

 _Who says flabbergasting anymore?_ Subaru thought to himself.

"Natsuki Subaru, him, says he knows the identity of the candidate," Reinhard responded.

"It's nice to meet you," Subaru smiled at the half-elf.

"... Likewise," Emilia said hesitantly. "How do you know? Because I remember the Council was soooo mad about it when their search failed and they spent sooo much money..." her voice trailed off as she looked with curiosity at Subaru.

Turning his gaze away from the familiar expression he had taken for granted with a nervous gulp, "I just got kind of lucky. I'll be asking for compensation later from the Sage Council, of course." Reinhard looked at the teenager with interest at the somewhat contradictory statement and started to put a few pieces together, realizing that based on his claims he had taken the risk in the alleyway due to knowing Reinhard's presence in the area. _What is the extent of his knowledge?_ He wondered. _Such details don't make much sense if he also knows about an event in another area, does it? Or maybe it does… gah, I'm useless. He said it wasn't a blessing, but a curse. Worst-case scenario… connections with the Witch Cult? His offering of help to the Council doesn't make much sense then, even if he is acting as a double agent. Additionally, he was wrong about Emilia's insignia being stolen, so I'll have to stay vigilant and confirm for myself what he's saying about the fifth candidate._

"Soooo... you want to check the new candidate with my insignia?" Emilia asked in understanding as they neared the loot house.

"That's right," Subaru spoke. "We're here." He walked up the rickety porch of the dilapidated building and knocked on the run-down door. "Oiiiii! Roooom! I know you're in there!"

" _Does he know what he's doing?"_ Emilia whispered to Reinhard, who shrugged, the two of them standing back on the ugly, dead grass that filled the slums. Suddenly, very loud crashes could be heard from within the house and the door creaked open to reveal an aged giant who stood comfortably above 7 feet, bending his head down to fit beneath the doorframe.

"What do you want?" The giant grumbled. "If it's not important, don't be a bother."

"We have business with Felt," Subaru responded, and Emilia and Reinhard walked up beside him and greeted the giant as well.

Subaru stared in surprise as Felt walked out next to Rom with an expression of annoyance, murmuring tiredly, "Do ya know us?"

 _She's at the height Mr. Subaru said the thief was… the last candidate?_ Emilia thought to herself.

 _So this is the candidate? They don't seem to know him. How much has he seen of us four?_ Reinhard too was carefully considering the situation.

"Uh… yea, we have some questions for you, Felt. Can we come in?" Subaru answered.

"... okay," Felt suspiciously glanced at him but made way for the trio to enter the building.

"You must be joking…" Subaru quietly muttered to himself, drawing sharp looks of curiosity from Reinhard and Emilia. _Why is she already here?_ He tried to hide his shock at the odd turn of events.

Once they were all seated, Subaru addressed Felt and asked, "Have you received instructions to steal something recently?"

Felt glared at him. "No. Why are ya bringing that up?! We're going through a bit of tough business right now, can't ya tell by the building?"

It then dawned on Subaru why the current present diverged from what he knew. _Shit. I should have known…_

"Subaru-san, are you alright?" Emilia asked, concerned at the horrified expression on his face, Reinhard looking with concern as well.

Subaru quickly replaced his expression with a smile, responding "Of course I'm alright! Also, you can just call me Subaru… ah, right, in that case… why don't you let Felt borrow the insignia for a moment?"

At Puck's reluctant agreement, hiding from within her hair, Emilia tentatively reached in her pocket and handed Felt the black badge, Reinhard watching carefully. Felt held it up, toying with the weight as it immediately glowed at her touch. "What is this?" she asked, peering at the shining red crystal at its center. Reinhard immediately moved and snatched the insignia from her, quickly handing it back off to Emilia.

"I'll be using my position as a Royal Guard to order you right now to come with me to the First District right now," Reinhard directed his order at the shocked Felt, who took a step back at the unexpected first words from the knight who began to exude a very powerful aura.

"What do you think you're doing?" Rom growled, stepping in front of the young girl.

"She needs to be transported to the central district as soon as possible. This is an order, not a request. As the Sword Saint, I recommend that you do not attempt to resist or I will be forced to arrest you. If you really feel so inclined, you may come with us." Reinhard answered steelily.

"Old Man, who do these people think they are to order me around like this?" Felt yelled indignantly.

Rom looked down at the knight and reluctantly voiced his opinion. "As long as I can come… I'll need to keep an eye on you to make sure you don't try anything funny," then turning to calm down Felt, "It'll be alright, I'll be with you along the way. Try not to worry too much," Felt calmed down a bit although she still seemed very on edge.

Subaru spoke up, addressing Reinhard. "We need to speak."

Reinhard nodded and the two of them walked off to the side of the room. "It seems like you were telling the truth, although it doesn't seem like there is an assassin, is there?" Reinhard checked.

"Yeah, that's the case. The future has already changed from what I know," Subaru laughed nervously, giving Reinhard an uncomfortable feeling he wasn't exactly able to place. "I know you'll have to take Felt to the Council immediately, but I have a bad feeling about the whereabouts of the Bowel Hunter...I'm going to need backup." _Originally, Meili attacked the village regardless of Roswaal… I'm going to need backup for sure if Elsa is going to show up as well. I have only a few days to prepare… I have to make sure to get someone capable._

"I suppose that makes sense. You did mention something about a reward… " Reinhard responded.

"That's not too important right now… I guess you can give my name credit for finding her, though. I'll make my requests later. Is any capable knight able to face off the Bowel Hunter off duty around this time? Taking Ferris would likely be a good idea as well... and now that I've given you a reason to believe me with Felt, I'm going to let you know that there's going to be a Mabeast attack at Irlam Village in a few days- Elsa could be there."

"I'll put my trust in you," Reinhard responded, "currently… I can only imagine Julius being both capable enough and available right now… and, understandably, you need Ferris as well." He thought a bit before responding. "Why don't you head to Irlam? I'll be able to transport Felt quickly thanks to my blessings… ah, I have to account for bringing Rom." he said, appraising the size of the giant.

"This is the worst-case scenario, but if the attack has already started by the time we reach there- the future has already diverged from what I know, after all… then I won't stand a chance against the Bowel Hunter and Mabeasts. It'll be suicide." Subaru shook his head. "Your telepathy probably can't go that far to wherever Julius is, right?"

Surprise flashed across Reinhard's face, and he responded. "No, it can't. How would you know if I used telepathy in the future? That doesn't seem like something you would be able to observe…"

Subaru grimaced and reluctantly answered the question, "We talked through telepathy at one point… in the original timeline. Ah, a car or phone would be nice... I suppose I'll bring Emilia to Ram and we'll take it slow back to the mansion… try to send Julius and Ferris to us as soon as possible. Ah, don't tell anyone about my "future sight" yet… that could change the future too much. Try to act as you would normally."

"Will do," Reinhard agreed offhandedly while trying to imagine the consequences of the teenager not just seeing the future, but actively seeing it by participation in it… just who was he? He hadn't expected to come across such an intriguing case on his off day- the last candidate and a foreigner with an unknown potential of effect on the kingdom. He hurried back to Felt and Rom and called them with him. "Emilia-sama, come with us, we'll bring you back to Ram. Natsuki will come with you back to the Mathers Estate… some suspicious things are going on that we need to be careful about, he'll be there to ensure nothing's wrong." Reinhard glanced at Subaru, who nodded at him.

Emilia nodded, silently watching the seemingly anxious stranger that the reputable knight now seemed to trust more.

In the slightly bumpy carriage, Emilia peered at the strange man snoring gently across the interior of the carriage from under her bangs. It had been several hours since Reinhard-san and Subaru had helped her find Ram in the Capital City, with Reinhard-san then taking his leave with Felt and Rom, and she hadn't been able to fall asleep yet. The teenager had been very friendly to her, and she thought it was quite odd for him to not care about her appearance. He had been oddly pressing quickly on a small tablet in a certain pattern for a while before he had dozed off.

"Who is this man, Emilia-sama?" Ram had asked once the teenager had fallen asleep.

"I'm not really sure… he seems to be acquainted with Reinhard-san, so we should be able to trust him for now… before Puck fell asleep for the day, he told me that he seemed trustworthy and free of malice but also seemed very angry at something..."

Emilia's train of thought was interrupted by the loud growls of the earth dragons. _It's been a while, we should be pretty close to the mansion, right?_ As she slid the window cover to the side and slipped her head through the hole, her face morphed into an expression of horror as she saw smoke rising from where the village was located.


	2. Arc 2, Phase 1 - Avoid and Advance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I'd like to thank my beta readers, including Saito, Anonymion, and supertone4671. (:

Ram, steering the carriage, brought it to a halt upon noticing the smoke illuminated by flames a few kilometers away in the night sky. At the same time, Emilia let out a stifled yelp while peeking out the window, immediately waking the former knight sleeping across from her.

"Emilia-tan! What's wrong?!" Subaru was by her side immediately, carefully peering out of the window by the half-elf's side. Noticing her discomfort at his closeness, he moved a bit away from her. "Uh, sorry if I made you uncomfortable," he chuckled nervously, but his expression quickly turned more serious. "We need to get out of the carriage. The village is likely in danger."

 _...What was that he added onto my name? It would be a question for later, I think… "_ Let's disembark then," she responded and shifted towards the door upon hearing Ram also step off the land dragon on the outside, wondering at his regain of composure right after waking up. _How old is he? I thought he was twelve or thirteen at first… but he speaks similar to someone just a bit older than that, maybe fifteen?_

Subaru took hold of a shortsword secured in the carriage and followed Emilia out of the caravan, hopping onto the ground, raising his head to look at the pink-haired oni. "Ram, can you use your Clairvoyance? We need to know what the problem at the village is before we head there."

"Understood," Ram responded after appraising the black-haired foreigner with a sharp gaze, Emilia also quietly filing the knowledge of the teenager's intel away.

As the technique passed down within the oni lineage came into effect, the demihuman's legs soon began to tremble and her eyes turned dark crimson, going out of focus. After a few moments, Ram's eyes regained focus, and her legs… kept on trembling.

"Mabeast have breached… the village's boundaries…" Ram spoke with a cough, to Emilia and Subaru's collective horror.

Emilia turned back to the carriage at once. "We need to get there immediately, the villagers are in trouble," she spoke, but was stopped by Subaru reaching out and holding onto her shoulder.

"It's too dangerous," he almost spit the words, like he didn't want to believe them or the situation they were in. "We have to focus on getting to the Mansion."

For the first time since meeting him, Emilia glared in shock and anger at the stranger. "What are you talking about, Subaru?! There are little children in trouble! The villagers are the priority right now! As the candidate of the area, I'm the one expected after Roswaal-sama to take care of the region!"

Ram cleared her throat and spoke, "Emilia-sama, if I am permitted to speak, I must say that the… man is correct on this. Without Puck, the amount of Mabeasts that are present will end up killing us all. We should confirm Roswaal-sama's presence at the Mansion and confirm my sister and the caretaker of the Forbidden Library are safe."

The silver-haired girl turned her glare to the maid. "That doesn't matter at the moment! There might be some villagers left-"

Ram cut her off and bluntly responded, "No, it's too late. I saw… no one left alive."

Emilia stiffened at the words she least wanted to hear and angrily stepped back over to the maid, clenching her fists at her sides. "No, there's no way that's true! I'm sure someone's left," she insisted. "Check again, Ram!"

Subaru clenched his jaw before attempting to convince her of the danger of walking into a Mabeast attack, "Emilia-tan. I know and understand how much you want to save the villagers. But if you can't protect yourself, it would all be for nothing. You can't die. You're a royal selection candidate, for goodness sake!" he shouted in frustration at the time they were actively losing- that he, too, was contributing to. "Get a grip. We need to confirm the safety of Beatrice and Rem, along with finding Roswaal-"

"I'm sure Beatrice and Rem should be able to defend themselves! Also, if Roswaal was here he already would have put a stop to this, we need to look for the survivors!" Emilia yelled, close to the angriest Subaru had ever seen her over the year or so he had served the half elf. "And who are you to tell me what my goals should be? I'm the only one who decides that. If we even manage to save one person, it'll be worth it, so just follow me or leave! Why are you even here bossing us around?!" she glowered at him, furious at the thought of letting the village continue to burn.

Subaru slightly paled upon seeing the anger he had rarely had ever witnessed. "I'm here to keep you safe, on the knights' behalf. Reinhard quite literally sent me here to make sure nothing suspicious is going on - I can't let you get hurt on my watch," he tried to respond but it was to no avail.

"How did you even know about this, that seems more suspicious to me. It hasn't even been long since I left the Mansion, also. Why are you acting as if you know everyone, if something's suspicious, shouldn't you be going to investigate it? How do you expect me to trust you when you're happy to throw away people that could be alive?! I know Reinhard well enough to know he would already be at the village!"

Subaru gritted his teeth as he glared at the ridiculously stubborn girl - a quality he had grown to love in his time serving her. He had single-handedly been saved many times by her refusal to give up on him and the rest of her camp… be it the lap pillow in the mansion or the speech in the tower, he knew her unflinching kindness, and sometimes her naivety, were present no matter the situation. And here he was trying to change her. But it was Subaru's responsibility to keep her and her camp safe, whether he was her knight right now or not; the boy decided to alter his strategy.

"You're failing to understand the situation. I'm familiar with these attackers, which is why I knew that something could be occurring here. In fact, I've… seen my closest friends killed by them," Ram watched him more carefully at this statement. "At one point, every single one of the people that I cared about in this entire world were killed by these people! Also, I'm not a Royal Knight like Reinhard. I barely even know how to use the sword here." He raised the small blade a bit. "It wouldn't even be useful against who I think is attacking! You're failing to understand just how bad the situation is that we're in. Rem and Beatrice are the people most likely to be safe and able to survive with us that we can find right now. To be honest, the village is done for. If the Mabeasts have already attacked like Ram saw, I can't let the three of us walk into our deaths - I, too, want revenge on those monsters. But Reinhard entrusted you with me, and I fully intend to protect you until my death," the former knight asserted, his eyes reflecting the shocked face of his former liege.

Emilia opened her mouth to continue arguing, but her voice lacked the conviction it had earlier. "But… still, I can't let the villagers- " her now faltering voice was cut off by a yelp from Ram, who once again had activated Clairvoyance under Emilia's previous order.

"Someone is heading toward the mansion," Ram hissed, coughing blood upon the second use of the ability as her senses returned. "We need to go now. Emilia-sama, make your decision now."

Giving in, the girl responded guiltily as she averted her eyes from the demon's blood on the grass. "... Let's make haste." She hesitantly turned to the foreigner, averting her eyes, and began to apologize. "I'm… really sorry for my words. I didn't know that you had been through something like that," she paused, "I'm grateful that Reinhard-san sent you here with us. I'm glad to have someone reliable here."

Subaru smiled warmly at the young girl who had once been far past him in terms of emotional development. "Don't worry about it. Your feelings are understandable, but I just can't lose anyone else, especially you. We will certainly return to the village after confirming the status of the mansion. Hopefully by then Julius-san will be here, too." Emilia nodded in understanding, although she still seemed a bit uncertain. "I'd also like to apologize; my words were quite harsh back there too. We don't have too much time, though, so let's save the extended apologies for later." She seemed relieved at this and the two of them headed over to Ram, who was already beginning to move the ground dragons.

"How long were we in the carriage?" Subaru asked Ram as they collected their needed belongings and guided the ground dragons to the side of the road.

"I think… ah, you are curious about the reinforcement arrival time, are you not? Ram believes it will take nine hours at maximum for Julius and Ferris and any others they decide to bring to arrive."

With that, the trio made their way into the forest surrounding the path to the village and mansion.

On the trio's way on foot through the thick underbrush, with the help of the numerous lesser spirits Emilia was contracted with, Subaru contracted with quasi spirits of yin and fire to avoid using his gate while it was still undeveloped. The more menial task of communication and connecting him with willing spirits had served as a good distraction from the village they were now passing by for the half-elf, and she was interested in his high affinity for the spirit arts. The half-elf had also not spent much time in the forest recently and despite the situation, it was undeniably a beautiful location at that time: the illumination of the darkness of the middle of the night - the bright glint of the moon effortlessly seemed to weave through the web of wood that was the understory of the Kremald Forest. A pale glow cast a dusty light over the floor of the woodland that made the half-elf feel oddly nostalgic while she ran through the knitting of trees. At the cathartic sense of freedom she wasn't sure why she was experiencing, her mind floated away from the horrors occurring in the village just a few kilometers away to lighter thoughts.

 _It's reaaaally strange, no matter how I think about it…_ Emilia pondered Subaru's unique situation of having no contracts yet having an oddly high affinity for spirits. _Puck said he has a yin attribute, too. That's even more strange…_ Eventually, she gathered the courage to voice her questions aloud. "Your gate is sooo weak, why haven't you contracted with a spirit already? I expect someone who is reaaaaally good at spirit arts to do that, and you know about your affinity, so why?" The question naturally slipped out of Emilia to the now contracted foreigner after about two hours of travel through the dense bush.

He had begun to respond when the first attack came from a large wolf-like Mabeast that attempted to pounce on Ram.

"El Fula!"

"El Goa!"

Ram and Subaru both shouted their incantations, the fire quasi-spirit providing Subaru with the pseudo-gate to activate the spell. The Mabeast was set alight by a fire bullet and had its throat cut with a wind blade; a successful victory.

_Grrrr…_

_GRRRrrrr…._

_GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!_

The three began a mad dash. It seemed that the mistake of not deciding on who would attack in a specific order had come to bite them as they had made quite the ruckus. Quite literally, in fact, with at least… _that's six Mabeasts right there,_ Subaru thought, sending a flash of Goa in the direction. Emilia in the front made sure to head in the right direction based on the surrounding spirit's directions. And Ram brought up the rear, sending an occasional Fula at their pursuers.

Continuing on with this frantic dash, they had eventually lost the majority of the Mabeasts chasing them after about half an hour. The trio had slowed to a fast jog, Subaru bringing up the rear by this point, when Ram suddenly gasped in pain.

"Rem… is… in danger…" she spoke in short spurts through heavy, pained exhales. "The attacker has definitely reached the mansion by now."

"We should be close by now," Emilia reassured her. "We passed the village at least an hour ago."

Subaru had been struggling to keep up and had comfortably settled at the back by this point, but upon hearing Rem's peril, adrenaline kicked in for all three of them. They sped up their pace for the next twenty minutes or so before finally arriving at a viewpoint to see the mansion, from the same cliff from which Subaru had once appraised a stolen knife in one of his early loops.

The scene before them was shocking. _This can't be happening._ Emilia thought frantically as Rem, bleeding heavily from a gash in her forehead, stumbled out of the courtyard of the Mansion when the front door exploded in shrapnels of wood as a black haired woman burst through at an almost imperceptible speed. The Mansion itself seemed mostly undamaged other than several shattered windows.

Luckily, in preparation for such a situation, Subaru had informed them of the plan this time around.

"Where is Roswaal-sama at a time like this…" Ram murmured, frustrated.

The three jumped from the cliff, a bit of wind magic cast by Ram breaking their fall, although Subaru landed a bit heavily on his right leg, and ran towards the bloodied maid chased by the assassin.

Elsa and Rem had both noticed their presence by now and Rem immediately ran in their direction, having regained her footing by now.

Elsa just caught up to Rem and was about to plunge her knife in the maid's back, but was luckily stopped in time. Several ice shards plunged through the air past Elsa, who dodged around all but one, which obliterated the anti-magic cape she quickly pulled in front of her torso. Emilia had channeled a lesser spirit's gate just in time. Elsa froze just long enough for Ram and Subaru to throw their own magic at her, of which a wind blade only cut her right arm— it was clear that the ice had been a lucky shot.

Both sides had come to a stop by this point, but Rem stumbled upon getting to Ram, who was the closest to Elsa from the trio, and immediately fell face first in the road as Elsa watched with a smile. Ram stared in horror at the knife protruding from the back of Rem's left calf. Elsa had thrown and procured another knife almost instantaneously.

"Damn it," Subaru muttered as Emilia looked on in horror while throwing a few more ice crystals that didn't affect Elsa, able to dodge them with relative ease. Rem's screams of pain were slightly muffled by the dirt and dark blood was pooling around her foot. The combination of pain from Synthesia, Clairvoyance, and the mana Ram had used by now were causing her to step back in shock beside Emilia.

"Grab Ram and run!" Subaru quickly informed Emilia of Plan B right before charging straight at the assassin, becoming the new target, although Elsa hung back a bit as Emilia kept her off by flinging ice shards.

Subaru passed Ram being pulled back into retreat by Emilia, and hurled his small sword in Elsa's direction, following through with the motion fully. Unfortunately, the athletic peak he had reached in his dream didn't translate over to what was now the real world, and the sword flew off mark enough for Elsa to immediately begin to close the distance between them. Even worse, Emilia was unable to continue to attack Elsa due to the proximity of the boy and assassin.

Luckily, Subaru did have a plan in mind. A shout left his lips the moment Elsa began to move, not having any time to react after that.

"Shamak!"

Elsa's eyes widened at the unexpected use of yin magic and she stumbled, eyes unfocused and unseeing. Not to be deterred by the nausea that was induced by the spell, she kept moving, waving her extra knife around her in wide, sweeping arcs that would have immediately gutted Subaru if he didn't dive to the side.

"Ahhhh! If I knew you could use other types of magic, I would have been more careful. Such a shame," the woman cried out. "I want to see your guts even more now…" She continued to swing her knife in almost imperceptibly fast arcs around herself, although Subaru was able to maintain a distance of roughly eight to ten meters.

Subaru readied the incantation, knowing Elsa would pounce the moment he made a sound. "Ul Goa!"

Elsa tried to turn in his direction and move towards him, but the dizziness inducing yin spell had left her off-balance enough for the fire bullets to fly true, striking her right shoulder. Ram from her position more far away had regained her composure, casting a wind spell that also struck Elsa. The semicircle of air pressure opened a giant gash on her torso, splattering dark blood over her body.

The incantations knocked the assassin back for long enough for Subaru to pick Rem up in his arms and hold her bridal style, the young man forced to ignore her pained cries, sprinting as fast as he could back to the forest where Emilia and Ram were headed. Within moments, Rem fell unconscious. Subaru gritted his teeth and tried to maintain the Shamak on Elsa, knowing that was the only thing preventing her from extracting his intestines while Emilia and Ram were slowing to let him catch up.

"She can regenerate," Subaru hissed, "We need to hurry, attacking her more right now won't help."

"Ram, let's hurry," said Emilia as she and Ram sped up, and the four passed into the trees safely, leaving Elsa behind.

After a minute of running, Subaru could hold onto the Shamak no longer and let it go. They heard a shriek from the general direction of the mansion, meaning Elsa was still some distance away.

"We need to heal and wake up Rem," Subaru let down the injured maid, answering the alarmed eyes of Emilia and Ram. "The assassin doesn't know where we are, get her stabilized."

"Where is Roswaal-sama?" Ram muttered as Emilia called on a few spirits to help her channel the mana required to stabilize Rem's wounds and remove the knife from the blue-haired oni's lower leg.

"Hand me the knife," Subaru alerted Emilia as he handed her his jacket, "We need every weapon we can get right now. I won't be able to cast magic for a while after maintaining Shamak for so long." Emilia handed him the bloody blade after tightly wrapping Rem's leg with the black jacket.

"Then, I'm going to wake Rem up now," Emilia used a contracted spirit again to force Rem awake. The maid coughed and sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"What… happened… oh!" she jumped to her feet and looked around, remembering the recent fight, and lost her balance the moment she put weight on her left leg. Ram caught her before she toppled completely.

"What's going on in the mansion?" Ram implored Rem to answer, "Where's Roswaal-sama? What about Beatrice-sama?"

"Roswaal-sama… left for a business trip yesterday. Beatrice-sama should still be inside her library. I held off the woman for some time, but she caused a lot of damage inside of the building."

"As expected," Subaru interrupted. Rem looked quizzically at the stranger, remembering that he had carried her before she fell unconscious. "We need to head to the village to look for survivors. We can lead Elsa away from Beatrice, wait for Julius to come back, and look for any survivors."

"The village was attacked?!" Rem yelped.

"Yes, that's right, and now we need to help whoever is in trouble," Emilia affirmed. "Let's hurry."

Ram moved to let Subaru pick up Rem again and the four began to run back to the village, all hoping that the assassin wouldn't be able to catch up to them before they arrived.


End file.
